


Fairy Boys: Like Someone's Mum

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Family, Glitterverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:46:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the Fairy Boys series (9). A conversation between Remus' parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairy Boys: Like Someone's Mum

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

David closed the cellar door behind him and headed straight for the kitchen. He knew Claire would be there. Forget women's lib -- she'd claimed it years ago as her personal space.

She was standing with her back to the door when he went in, hands braced on the counter just in front of the sink. There was a stiff, tense angle to the way she was holding her head as she stared out into the dark garden. The full moon glinted off the metal spikes on the top of the wall.

"How is he?" she asked.

"Sleeping."

"Sleeping?" Claire turned her head just enough to glance at her husband over her shoulder, and frowned slightly. "Already? But the moon's only been up half an hour. He's usually thrashing about most of the night, isn't he? Is he okay?"

"Of course he isn't bloody okay," David snapped. He closed his eyes briefly and tried to keep calm. "You really hurt him tonight," he said accusingly.

Claire turned back to the window. "I didn't hurt him," she said coldly, after a brief pause. "He was **rude** to me, David, and I walked away."

"You **hurt** him. Badly. Sirius too."

"Oh, for god's sake," she muttered. "Leave him out of it, will you?"

"How can I? How can we talk about Remus without talking about Sirius?"

Claire turned around and folded her arms. The casual way she was leaning against the sink was put on -- it was obvious from the tightness of her jaw and the dangerous spark in her hazel eyes. "I don't have the slightest clue what you're trying to get at," she said coolly. "Maybe you should go and lie dow--"

"Don't be so ridiculous!" he interrupted angrily. "You know precisely what I'm talking about."

"Oh, do I?"

"Why are you being so difficult?"

"Why are you avoiding direct accusations?" she countered. "Say it straight, or don't say it at all."

David bounced his tightly-clenched fist off his thigh a couple of times. "Straight," he said bitterly. "Yes, you'd really love that, wouldn't you?"

"I don't have to listen to this." Claire sounded disgusted, and she stalked towards the door. "I'm going t..."

David grabbed her arm as she passed.

"Ow! Get off me!" she shouted. She tried to hit him with her free hand, but he grabbed that wrist too, firmly directing her into a chair.

"Sit down. We're going to talk about the boys whether you like it or not."

"Get **off** my arm!" Claire yelled, finally managing to pull herself away. She looked at David warily, then perched on the edge of one of the wooden chairs. "All right, I'm sitting."

David sat opposite her. "Right."

"Right," she repeated, then, when it was obvious he wasn't going to speak any time soon, "Well?"

David took a deep breath. "You're an intelligent woman, Claire," he started.

"Well, thanks very much for noticing."

He glared at his wife until she looked away. "I hadn't finished. You're intelligent, but you're bloody stupid sometimes. Are you **trying** to push him away?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, that's what it seems like. Why can't you accept their decision to be together?"

Claire seemed a bit flustered. "Because! It's just..."

"If you say wrong, I'm leaving."

A long, stunned silence followed David's calm warning.

"What?" Claire finally managed to splutter.

"You are really upsetting him," David said, slowly and clearly, over-enunciating each word as if his wife didn't understand English very well. "Don't you think he has enough to worry about, without you behaving like this?"

"Wha... hang on a minute, go back," Claire said hurriedly, flapping her hand to shut him up. "Leaving?"

He didn't answer for a moment, just stared at her. Eventally, he looked down at his hands, which were resting on the table, tightly clenched together, and asked, "Do you know what it's like to suddenly realise that you don't know a thing about the person you're in love with?"

"Err..."

"The way you're acting about the boys," he continued, forcing himself to look back at her, "it makes me feel sick. You know, you're **just** like the little shits who used to beat Remus up before we moved here."

Claire's jaw dropped. She didn't seem to realise. "I am not!" she insisted, sounding absolutely horrified.

"You are! You've latched onto one single facet of his personality that you don't feel comfortable with, and you're turning it into this huge awful hate thing."

Claire's eyes filled with tears and she bit her lip hard. "David, I **don't** hate him," she whispered.

"Then you hate Sirius?"

"No!"

"Then you hate homosexuals?"

She hesitated, then choked out, "N... no." David raised an eyebrow and just looked at her until she inhaled and exhaled slowly and repeated it. "No. No, I do not hate homosexuals. I just... don't want my son to be one."

"Fine," David said quietly. "Fine." He got to his feet.

"Wait, where are you going?" Claire asked, half-standing too.

"I'm leaving," he said. His voice was low and furious, more a growl than anything else. "I'll stay with Rick until I find my own place. Remus can stay with me if he likes. I'll come back tomorrow to talk things over with him."

"Oh, god... I'm sorry," Claire said desperately. "Don't go, please. Just... god. Just sit down for a minute, okay? Let's talk."

"I don't think I can bear to talk to you right now," he said tightly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Please."

"Fine." David pulled the chair out roughly and sat back down. "You'd better say something really good really soon, Claire."

She tried to reply, but her face crumpled and she began sobbing into her hands.

"Something better than that," David said harshly.

"Why are you being so awful?" Claire shouted.

"I'm trying to ask you the same thing."

"David, he **smokes**!!" she screamed.

There was a very, very long pause.

"That might be the stupidest thing you've ever said," David said incredulously.

Claire let out a sound that was a strange mixture of sob and laugh. "Well, he does. I can smell it on his clothes."

"So... you're opposed to Remus' relationship with Sirius because Sirius **smokes**?!"

"Amongst other things, yes!"

"Claire, **you** smoked for fourteen years."

Silence.

"But he wears make-up!" she tried.

"So do you, and my mother never complained."

"Be serious, will you?" she snapped.

"Oh, honestly!" David groaned. "The make-up's a fad, it'll pass soon enough. It's just fashionable now."

"But he..."

"He... what?"

Claire sighed, and slumped forward until her head and folded arms were resting on the table. "Nothing."

"He what?" David demanded.

"I was going to say he's easy."

"Right," he said coldly. He sat back and regarded her icily. "And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Well... they'd only been... you know, er, together, for three days before we came back and found them, uh..."

"Making love?" he supplied. Claire suppressed a shudder, and David rolled his eyes. "All right, then," he said. "Screwing."

" **David**!" Claire shrieked.

"Yes!" he said loudly, smiling without humour at the shocked look on her face. "We walked in on our son screwing another boy. That suit you better?"

"Don't!"

"Well, that's what it must've been, if it wasn't making love. Can you think of another term for it? Shagging?"

"Stop it!"

"What about fucking?"

"David, **stop** it!"

"It's not just fucking. Can't you see how bloody much they love each other?"

She snorted. "I see two perverted teenagers who insist upon flaunting their sexualities."

"Oh, for Christ's sake..."

"They were kissing in the open doorway!" she exclaimed. "What if Mrs Lewis saw?!"

"Good! Dried up old bat probably hasn't had any for decades. Might give her a thrill."

"Ugh."

When David next spoke, his voice was barely audible. "Sirius is an Animagus," he said softly.

Claire's mouth dropped open again. "What?!"

"Sirius. Is. An. Ani..."

"I heard you," she said impatiently. "But... what?! How?!

"Complicated transfigurations, few potions, four years of research..."

"It's illegal!"

"I don't give a shit whether it's legal or illegal, I think he did it to help our boy! He's down there in the cell right now, in his dog form, and he's calmed Remus enough to send him to sleep. Now tell me how that can be a bad thing."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if it might help her to find the right words. "...It's illegal!"

David suddenly needed to hit something; he brought his fist crashing down on the table, as hard as he could. "Sirius is helping him, which is more than **you've** ever done!" he yelled.

He sat back in his chair so hard that it rocked back on two legs, then slammed loudly to the ground again. After that, there was silence... broken a few moments later by Claire's crying.

"You'll get no sympathy from me, if that's what you're after," he snarled.

"How can you say things like that?!" Claire screamed. She hiccuped in a little breath, and wiped her streaming eyes with her palms.

"It's the truth!" he responded furiously. "You've sat with him maybe four times out of about a hundred and fifty transformations."

"The wolf doesn't like other people being there, that's why!"

"Then why do you never go down afterwards and clean his cuts and hug him and tell him you love him?" Silence. "When did you last tell him you loved him?" Silence. " **Do** you love him?"

"Of course I do!" she screamed. "I love him so much, it rips me apart to see him in pain, and I wish we'd never gone on that stupid fucking camping trip, and... and I..."

She suddenly seemed to choke on her own sobs, and bent over, heaving. David watched her for a moment, then got up and stepped around the table so he could put a tentative hand on her shoulder. She shook it off, so he knelt down and made her look at him.

"Okay, calm down," he said quietly. "Come here."

"I'm... god... he..." She gave up, and slipped off her chair so she could fall against David and hug him, clutching desperately at his back with both hands as if trying to convince herself he was still there.

"Hey, don't wipe your nose on my shirt!" he protested, hugging back tightly.

"That was an accident!"

"That was **not** an accident, you wiped it on my shoulder!"

She laughed shakily. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

Claire sniffled quietly to herself for a while, then whispered. "David?"

"Hmm?"

"I was scared."

He pulled back a bit so he could see her face. "Of Remus?"

She nodded, and hid her face against his neck again. It was easier to talk when she couldn't see his eyes. "Yes. I was scared of him, I didn't want to sit in a room with a werewolf all night. I'm selfish. I'm sorry. And he's always loved you more than he loves me anyway, so I left the looking-after to you. The few times I did it, I always made him wince and cry so much... I can't stand him being in pain, it was even worse when I caused it."

"But can't you see you're hurting him just as much now?" David asked reasonably. "Hurting him **more**?"

Claire bit her lip and nodded slowly. "Yes, I... suppose so."

"Have you ever had a conversation with Sirius? I don't just mean polite child-adult conversation, I mean a real talk?"

"No, not really."

"He's a great kid. Really funny, really clever, so full of life. And you've seen the way he and Remus are when they're together."

Claire couldn't help a little snort of derision.

" **Not** the passion," David said, swallowing his infuriation for the time being and just going on. "I mean the way they can never stop looking at each other."

Claire sighed heavily. "I've noticed they're always smiling," she admitted.

"Yes! Isn't that amazing? Don't you love seeing Remus like that? Happy?"

"Of course I do," she said quietly.

"Then will you put your prejudices aside and let them be?"

"Truthfully... I don't know if I can."

"Try, then. Please. For me. For **him**. He needs you. It might not seem that way, but what do you expect after being so distant for so long?"

She sniffed loudly, and reached right around David's neck so she could wipe more tears away. "I don't think I know how," she murmured. "I don't know how to be a good mother."

"But you love him?"

"More than everything."

"And you want him to be happy?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then you've got the most important things covered. You'll just have to make an extra-special effort to prove it to him. You've come to terms with his lycanthropy, now you're just going to have to come to terms with this too. And when you think about it, love, this should really be a whole lot easier. This is a **good** thing."

"Well... neither of them are easy," she mumbled. "I just don't want him to have to deal with more abuse than he's going to get anyway, when people find out about his condition. Do you honestly think the wizarding world is going to accept a homosexual werewolf with open arms?"

"No I don't, and Remus knows that too. But when the rest of the world hates him, he's going to need some support. He's going to want his mum there to back him up. Even if you don't approve of it, you could accept it. He's growing up and you can't protect him any more, but he'll always need you to stand behind him and be there for him when he needs you."

"But why does he have to make it so much harder on himself?"

"I don't think he **intended** to fall in love with Sirius. It's not something you choose. If you chose who you fell in love with, I'd have gone for your sister... oww!" He rubbed his arm, trying to alleviate the pain caused by Claire's (only half-) playful thumps.

"You deserved that. And there's more where it came from, so shut up!"

David chuckled softly and kissed the top of his wife's head. "Don't try and change the subject."

"Sorry."

But there didn't seem to be anything else to say after that. They just sat in each other's arms on the kitchen floor, drifting in and out of uncomfortable sleep, waiting apprehensively for dawn as the moon rose to the top of the sky and then sank back down.

"Claire, are you awake?" David whispered. He felt her nodding, and kissed her head. "Sun's up. Do you want to go and see him?"

After a small hesitation, she shook her head. "Not now. I'm probably the last person in the world he wants to see. You go. I'll talk to him when he's feeling better."

"All right." David stood up, and offered Claire a hand; he pulled her to her feet, and kissed her nose gently. "I love you."

"Love you too," she whispered. "And I'm sorry for being so..." Her voice faded and she just shrugged and pulled a face. "You know."

David stepped away and began filling a basin with warm water. "The only other thing I can suggest is that you try to be truly like someone's mum for a change, instead of someone's mother."

He gave her one last smile before heading into the hallway, towards the cellar door and the son whom he adored with all his heart.

~END~


End file.
